Working With The Borderline Client

Dick Schwartz Demonstrates How to Minimize Reactivity

When a deeply troubled client begins a first session by shifting erratically through different mood states and periodically going numb, many therapists recognize—with a certain sense of dread—that they may be working with a borderline client.

It doesn’t have to be dreadful, according to Dick Schwartz, originator of the Internal Family Systems model. In fact, Dick suggests that our effectiveness in working with borderline clients is less about them than the capacity to tolerate our own reactive inner “parts.”

In this video role-play with Rich Simon, part of our 6-session webcast series—Tough Customers: Effective Approaches to Challenging Clients—Dick shows us how he introduces his “parts” approach to clients in the very first session. It’s a short video with a big impact, and it gives you a taste of a model that has proven to be highly effective with borderline and other challenging clients.

Richard Schwartz, Ph.D., is director of the Center for Self Leadership and the originator of the Internal Family Systems model. He joins Wendy Behary, Clifton Mitchell, Janina Fisher, William Doherty, and John Norcross for the re-release of our popular streaming-video webcast series:

It’s a 6-session practical, nuts-and-bolts exploration of what really works with the kinds of cases and clinical situations that regularly take us to the edge of what we know and who we are as people and would-be healers. Here’s a preview of what each session covers:

Clifton Mitchell on Treating the Highly Resistant Client
Get concrete practical guidance on a range of clinical methods to help you overcome stagnation and create therapeutic movement with these hard-to-treat cases.

Wendy Behary on Treating the Narcissistic Client
Learn how to form genuine relationships with self-absorbed, un-empathic clients with therapeutic leverage and empathic confrontation.

Richard Schwartz on Treating the Borderline Client
Discover new ways to avoid unnecessary therapeutic struggles through openhearted acceptance and gain a deeper understanding of the role of exiled “parts” in the client’s reactivity.

William Doherty on Treating the Stuck and Self-Destructive Client
Learn effective new ways to move therapy forward when it stalls without subtly blaming the client, giving speeches, or becoming defensive.

John Norcross on Customizing Therapy with the Resistant Client
Explore how to match treatment approaches with client characteristics to avoid treatment stalemates by assessing for six key client characteristics.

Don’t Miss Out On This Limited-Time Re-Release Watch All 6 Sessions Starting Friday, March 21st Or On Demand For A Full Year!Get course details here.